


Islands in the Sea

by thatviciousvixen



Category: Jurassic Park (Movies), Jurassic World (2015)
Genre: Age Difference, Fluff and Smut, God this is so fluffy, I'm a smutlord but I have my squicks, Legal Zach, M/M, Older Zach, Rimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:48:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4861844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatviciousvixen/pseuds/thatviciousvixen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are worse things than tan skin underneath you and a blue sky above you.</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>The one where life on an island has done Zach a world of good, and Owen reflects on the past six months.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Islands in the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Man I sure do write a lot of smut. I've aged Zach up a few years, I've never been super comfortable writing sex-with-a-minor. Consent is key! Also this is pretty un-beta'd, I'm sorry! I'm lazy! I'm so so lazy!
> 
> Title comes from this lovely William James quote; “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.” 
> 
> Anyways. Enjoy. I don't know what to do with these two but they're fun to write, feel free to suggest fics at my tumblr [here](http://that-vicious-vixen.tumblr.com).

Owen’s feet sank with every step across the beach, sand pushing up through his toes and clinging to his heels as he walked. It was the best sort of day, where the sun was bright without burning, the sky blue and clear as far as the eye could see. Lazy waves lapped along the shoreline, the white-crested breakers tumbling to barely nothing as they touched the beach and licked at his feet. 

Twenty yards off a lone figure was sprawled out, tan skin dark against the white sand and eyes closed. Zach lay with his surfboard next to him, one arm flung lazily over his eyes to make napping in the sunshine a bit easier.

Owen smiled to himself, starting to jog to close the distance between them. Just a few feet off Zach opened his eyes, turning a dazzling smile towards the older man.

“Done for the day?”

Owen dropped to sit beside him, stretching out so their fingers could twine lazily together. “Yeah, the girls were full of piss and vinegar today. I decided to give them a break, Mama Barry stayed behind to spoil them rotten. I wouldn’t be surprised if we need a new pig by tomorrow.”

Zach laughed, shaking his head. “He hates when you call him that.”

“Sure does. That’s why I do it,” Owen replied with a grin and a shrug. “Surfing good today?”

Sitting up, Zach shrugged one shoulder while he uncapped his water bottle and took a sip. “I didn’t break anything and I didn’t drown, I’ll take that as a win. I didn’t stay out there for too long, it felt nice to just lay in the sun.”

“Much more sun and your skin is going to look like Delta’s,” Owen teased fondly, turning to press a kiss to Zach’s shoulder. 

When the younger man had arrived back on Isla Nublar he’d been paler than the foam cresting the waves, and just as delicate. Two long years of living through his parents’ divorce while dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder had run him ragged. Two long years of making sure Gray had a relatively happy childhood despite their broken family had turned his wit and sarcasm into depression and self-deprecation. Two long years of struggling through school and trying to decide on his future had hollowed out his cheeks, the skin under his eyes dark and paper thin. He’d been wasting away on the mainland as he looked for his way out.

It came, as most things did, through Claire Dearing. 

She’d been wary and damn-near enraged when they decided to reopen the park, and only took the job under the stipulation that things would be run her way. No genetic modifications, no playing God. Lots more security. No Dr. Wu, even _if_ he’d been around in the days of Hammond. And Goddamn it, she was going to take days off every now and then.

She’d stayed as close as possible to her nephews ever since the fiasco a few years back. A renewed sense of family, Owen supposed. Through the holiday visits and weekly Skype calls she’d seen Zach starting to fade, saw the spitfire teenager turn into a young man who was already giving up on life.

So she offered him a job.

“By now he knows how to handle me better than anyone else,” she’d explained to Owen over dinner. Their second attempt at dating had been a bust, but this time they’d managed to stay friends. Owen had been a jackass to not respect this fierce warrior of a woman from the moment he had met her, he wouldn’t make that mistake again. “Anyway, I need a new assistant after...you know,” she said, regret flickering over her features as she thought of Zara. “And he needs to get away from his family, figure out who he is when he isn’t trying to be the glue that holds them together.”

“You think he’s going to leave his little brother there?” Owen had asked between bites of steak. Back then he didn’t know much about Zach, just that he was part of the whole ordeal and that he’d proven to be pretty damn tough in the face of danger.

Claire smiled, shaking her head. “I promised him Gray could spend his summers here if he gets straight A’s. Not that I wouldn’t let him anyway, but a little incentive never hurt.”

And that was that. A plane ticket was bought, new-hire paperwork was filled out, and Zachary Mitchell was officially an employee of Jurassic World, LLC.

Owen could clearly remember the day he’d shown up. He and Claire waited on the dock with homemade signs that may have involved glitter (she’d learned to have fun since nearly being eaten by a genetically modified dinosaur), cheering and whistling when they spotted him coming down the gangplank. Owen had barely recognized him. He’d grown another three inches, first of all; he towered over Claire despite her heels, and even looked down a bit at Owen himself. He was gangly, though. Thin and lithe and clearly made for surfing and swimming and anything that involved water. He dressed in the same hoodies and tight jeans, but his face had definitely matured. His hair was pushed back off of his face, although an errant strand had fallen forward in front of his eyes.

Owen leaned closer to Claire, mouth hanging open and eyes locked on the approaching man. “He’s uh. Eighteen now, right?”

“ _Owen!_ ” she’d hissed, smacking his arm. With a quick withering look she was on Zach, sweeping him into her arms and leaving lipstick prints all over his face. 

That had been a year ago. Nearly two, with Zach’s twentieth birthday closing in. 

Two years on the island had done him well. He’d filled out, still slim but so much healthier looking. Early morning jogs and weekends spent surfing had packed muscles onto his lean thighs, the barest hint of a six-pack visible when he exerted himself. He was still lanky and awkward, but it no longer seemed like he was one bad storm from blowing away.

His skin had taken on a permanent glow, tan and freckled from a life spent in the sunshine. Cheeks and lips constantly flushed from the heat, eyes sparkling, smile bright.

God damn, Owen loved the kid. 

“...and anyway, I’ve been talking for the last two minutes and you’ve just been staring at me, so I’m going to assume you’re either thinking about sex or food, and-”

“Sorry, sorry,” Owen interjected, laughing. “Random nostalgia.” He brought his arms up, lacing his fingers behind his head and resting back against his palms. “I’m an old man, I get lost in thought sometimes.”

Zach pushed onto his side, leaning over to brace his arm on Owen’s chest. “Random nostalgia about what?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“When you first got here. How much happier you seem now.”

Zach snorted, blushing and looking away. “Well. I am happier now. Don’t let it go to your head.”

Owen laughed, reaching down to pat his ass. “Come on, let’s go home. You look incredible right now, and I’m not getting a bunch of sand in places it doesn’t belong trying to get you naked on the beach.” Leaning in, he sucked a red mark just below Zach’s collar bone. Just below where the neckline of his shirt would fall to keep it hidden. “After that nap, then dinner, then Netflix. Sound good?”

“Sounds perfect, actually,” Zach grinned, standing and offering Owen his hand. “Did you walk?”

“The four-wheeler is just past the tree line. You know me, I’m too pretty to sweat,” Owen drawled.

The ride back went from comfortable to unbearable in no time flat, with Zach’s arms wrapped around his waist and Zach’s warm body pressed tight to his back. Owen could tell he was still lazy and pliant from the sun and warmth, all he could think about was spreading him over the sheets and doing all the work while Zach purred like a kitten underneath him. For once they had all night before them with nowhere to be and no one to please. 

Zach seemed to sense his anticipation, pressing tighter against him and sliding clever fingers along Owen’s chest. His thighs tightened around Owen, the muscles shifting under the still-damp board shorts. Leaning in, he raised his voice just enough to be heard over the steady growl of the engine below them.

“Drive faster.”

Ever the people-pleaser, he obliged. A blur of greenery shot past them as he revved the handle harder, Owen snorting at Zach’s happy laugh behind him. Brat. 

Five agonizing minutes crawled by before Owen pulled up to the bungalow, sliding off of his seat before unceremoniously picking Zach up and tossing him over his shoulder.

“Hey, what the fuck?” Zach asked grinning, landing a well placed smack against Owen’s ass. He squirmed but made no real effort to get away, his laughter trailing behind them as he was carried inside. “Look I know you like to play Alpha…”

“ _Play_ Alpha,” Owen gasped, incensed. “I am completely, undeniably, absolutely the Alpha, kid.”

“Until I get pissed off and you’re crawling all over yourself to make me happy,” Zach teased, letting out a little “oof” as he was tossed on the bed. His shorts dipped low on his hips, hair sticking up at weird angles as the salt water dried. He looked perfect.

“Yeah well, you’re a witch. You’ve got special powers over me.”

It had been true ever since Zach made it back to the island. Owen immediately bent over backwards to do anything he could to make the kid happy, whether it was late night swims in the lake or early morning tours of the raptor paddock. It didn’t take long for a firm friendship to form between them. All Zach really needed in his life was laughter; someone who didn’t take himself too seriously and didn’t take Zach too seriously either. He had left the moody teenager act behind the first time he came to Isla Nublar, and in its wake was left a kind, funny, fairly sarcastic young man who just wanted the people around him to be happy.

It took them about a year to move past friendship. Owen was worried about the age gap, and Zach’s self esteem was low enough that he couldn’t imagine someone like Owen wanting him back. It took a heart-to-heart and a little tequila, but they finally got their shit together and had been inseparable ever since.

Owen was yanked out of his thoughts by the rustling sound of fabric as Zach shimmied out of his swim shorts. He was suddenly gloriously naked, tan and freckled and waiting for Owen to join him. 

Owen had never really believed in God, but sometimes...sometimes he had to wonder. 

Yanking his shirt over his head, he didn’t make it to his jeans before he was climbing into bed to pull Zach close. The kisses he pressed to Zach’s lips were slow and sweet, gentle and calm like the tide drifting from the shore. He tasted like salt water, like summertime and cool ocean breezes stroking across your skin. Pulling away, Owen ducked in to nuzzle behind Zach’s ear and breathe in the scent of sunscreen. “Do you have to be so pretty?” he sighed. “It’s overwhelming.”

Zach laughed, bringing a hand up to stroke Owen’s hair. “I’m sorry I couldn’t have been born with some horrible disfigurement, I know it’s rough for you.” He pulled back, blinking up at Owen with those chocolate brown eyes that always got him anything he wanted from the man above him. Thank God he’d chosen to use his powers for good rather than evil.

“Thoughtless,” Owen grinned, shaking his head. He clucked his tongue when Zach reached for his belt buckle, sitting up and shaking his head. “Let me take care of everything, yeah? You look...really good right now, and you’re all soft and calm, and I don’t want you to move a muscle.”

Zach grinned, making a show of lowering his palms to the bed sheets.

“Attaboy,” Owen breathed. He took a moment to shuck his jeans off, tossing them away before turning to the man sprawled out before him. He was always completely taken by surprise by how good he looked, no matter how often he saw Zach naked. It didn’t even have to be sex. Getting dressed in the morning, stepping into the shower, sleeping naked on sweltering nights, his body always looked so perfect. Sliding his palm along Zach’s stomach, he smiled as the muscles of his stomach fluttered. “No tickling, I promise.” 

For a solid few minutes he simply touched. Zach’s skin was so sweet and soft, he wanted to stroke every bit of flesh to compare it to the rest, to explore the spots he had worked so hard to discover in their time together. The soft hair covering his shins and forearms, the smoothness of his inner thighs. Owen drew his thumb around flushed nipples, watching as they hardened under his touch. Zach squirmed slightly at the attention, a sigh falling from his lips. Still, he said nothing, made no move to hurry Owen along. He simply watched with heavy lidded eyes, smiling softly. 

Zach Mitchell knew how to be patient when it was to his benefit.

With a content sigh Owen moved between Zach’s thighs, gripping his legs with firm hands to gently spread them apart. One leg fell on either side of Owen, draped over his own thighs where he was kneeling reverentially. Zach’s cock, already half-hard, gave an appreciative twitch. 

“Boy, you look good enough to eat,” Owen drawled, leaning in to drag lazy kisses along a toned stomach. Just below Zach’s navel he parted his lips, his kiss growing wetter and hungrier as he sucked a mark into the tender skin.

“That a promise?” Zach breathed, squirming slightly. Owen looked up, an unspoken conversation passing between them as their eyes met. With a smirk Owen sat back up, once more grabbing creamy thighs, but this time pushing them all the way up to Zach’s chest. The younger man was bent right in half chest heaving and toes curling in anticipation.

Owen took his dear sweet time nipping along the backs of Zach’s thighs, nuzzling a kiss into the delicate spot just below the curve of his ass. “You taste like the ocean,” he murmured, head spinning. Like fresh, salty air and breezes and laughter and bliss. Like the feeling that summer would never end, that you could spend eternity lying in the sand and listening to the gulls overhead and never worry about another thing in your life. That was Zach, that sweet spot where all of your trouble was a distant memory and all you had was laughter and lazy smiles and affectionate touches.

“Focus,” Zach murmured, lazy and content. “Don’t get lost on me now.”

“Never,” Owen swore, flashing a smile up at his before returning to the task at hand. He spread Zach gently with his thumbs before leaning in, drawing his tongue softly over his entrance. Immediately he was rewarded with an appreciate hum, Zach sucking on his lower lip and worrying it between his teeth. 

“Good?”

“Yeah, s’good.”

Owen laughed softly at the encouragement, a gentle huff of breath tickling over Zach’s perineum. He leaned back in, moaning softly as he worked his tongue in past the tight ring of muscle. A year ago he swore he’d never be into this, that you couldn’t pay him to do it. The more he was with Zach though, the more everything he ever thought or believed about himself was flipped on its head. It was just too good to explore all those intimate places no one else ever got to touch, to slowly pull Zach apart with lips and tongue and teeth until he was squirming and begging for more. 

Anything. Anything Zach wanted, Owen would give to him.

Once he found his rhythm with his tongue he reached around, curling his fingers around Zach’s rigid length and stroking him lazily. Each pull drew a bead of precome from the tip, gravity pulling it to drip lazily to Zach’s stomach where it pooled until Zach absentmindedly ran his hand over his skin. Every now and then he’s whimper softly, the barest hint of sound that shot straight to Owen’s dick.

“Fuck baby, you sound so good,” Owen groaned, his own voice low and thick. He laughed as Zach reached for him, trying to direct him back to the task at hand. “You want me to fuck you or not?”

Zach was silent for a moment. When he responded it was a hum and a nod, his lip once more trapped between his teeth. Smiling brilliantly, he reached under the pillow to produce a small bottle of lube - their prized possession, the good shit they had to order on Amazon so they weren’t stuck using the garbage medical stuff they sold at the small supply store on the island. 

Owen took the bottle, staring at it appraisingly. “We better order more of this tonight, I’m never letting us run out again.”

“That was a fiasco,” Zach snorted. “I literally thought you m-might cry the day we realized.” His breath hitched as Owen pushed two slick fingers in, stroking and thrusting gently. “I still think we should try the expensive stuff, though. Just once.”

Owen snorted, rolling his eyes. “It isn’t necessarily better because it costs more.”

“Yeah b-but...mmm...but it _might_ be,” Zach tried to reason as pleasant shivers of lust traveled through his body. “Deeper…”

Owen did as asked, curving his fingers just slightly. “There?” Zach’s gasp was answer enough.

“Fuck yeah, there,” he panted. “Anyway, think about it. If we buy it we’ll have to run experiments to test our options…”

Owen leaned in, sucking Zach’s already abused bottom lip between his teeth. He pulled away, adding a third finger and thrusting harder. “Am I calling it in or something? You’re talking _way_ too much right now.”

Zach gave a breathless laugh, squirming. “And normally you’re the one who won’t shut up.”

Withdrawing his fingers, Owen sighed deeply as he moved to pull his boxers off and chuck them across the room. He coated his length with slick, giving a few strokes as he took in Zach’s flushed skin and heavy-lidded eyes. “Well, my only option is to fuck you silly until you can’t talk. For the sake of my pride.”

Zach laughed, stretching his arms up to grab the headboard. “Bring it on, Grady.”

With a fond laugh and an affectionate swat at Zach’s ass, Owen moved to kneel once more between his legs. Dragging a pillow down to prop up those slim, strong hips, he got Zach in the position they liked best before leaning down to steal a kiss. 

“Hey. I love you,” he murmured, nuzzling their noses together as he met Zach’s eyes.

Zach smiled, lazy and sweet, like sticky honey and late summer evenings. “Love you too.”

Owen kissed Zach as he pushed in, devouring his moan until their hips were pressed flush together. This moment always felt so sacred, half because of how good it felt and half because he still didn’t quite understand how he ended up with someone so bright and beautiful and god damn _sassy_ sharing his life and his bed. With a heavy sigh he drew out halfway, slowly rolling his hips to push back in.

Turning his head, he sucked a kiss just behind Zach’s ear. “How’s that, baby?” he breathed, soft and low. “Feel good?”

Zach could barely suck in a breath, back bowed and thighs spread. He simply nodded, hair falling into his eyes as he rocked up to meet Owen’s thrust. “Mmm, mhm.”

With that encouragement Owen set a languid pace, a gentle rocking of his hips that wasn’t particularly deep but rubbed against Zach’s prostate just the right way. He was in no mood to rush, to jackhammer his way through it until they finished like a bullet to the brain. He wanted to feel every inch of Zach’s sweet heat as he pulled out and pushed in, again and again, every now and then adding a little twist of his hips or a deeper grind to see what noises Zach would make.

They kissed like they were just learning how, like they did that first night together when Owen stopped caring that Zach was so much younger and Zach stopped second guessing his every move and just gave in. They kissed like they were just learning each other’s lips, the taste and feel of their tongues sweeping and pressing together.

It felt so comfortable, so familiar, and somehow so crucial. Like some important aspect of their relationship was hinging on this moment, turning and spilling forward into whatever their future was going to be.

With shaking hands Owen reached down, stroking Zach’s rigid length with every thrust of his hips. They were deeper now, still slow but with a snap at the end that jolted that bundle of nerves and made Zach cry out.

He looked so overwhelmed.

“Are you...fuck, you feel close,” Owen panted, a bead of sweat sliding from his temple. He could read Zach like a book, he knew all the changes and signals that came just before the end. “Gonna come for me?”

Zach nodded frantically, the steady pace of just a few minutes before fraying and snapping. “Yeah, I’m gonna...oh fuck, Owen! Fuck!” He gasped, arching up into Owen’s arms as he spilled between them. Zach’s orgasms were always like fireworks, bright and beautiful and goddamn if you didn’t want to gasp in amazement after. Not wanting to be left behind Owen finally sped up, thrusting in hard and fast as Zach tensed around him. It didn’t take long, his own climax like a sucker-punch to the jaw as he spilled into his boyfriend.

Soon they were a tangled mess on the sheets, sweaty and sticky and laughing as they kissed and cuddled together. Owen managed to reach off the bed to grab his t-shirt, swiping it over Zach’s skin to clean him off before tossing it in the general direction of the laundry hamper.

He lay silently for a moment, letting his mind wander back to Owen a year ago, back to life before this. It felt like an entirely different world.

Zach yawned next to him, running a hand through his already disastrous hair. “We should order pizza and go eat it on the beach, watch the sun go down.”

Owen’s mind immediately clicked forward to Zach back in the sand, Zach painted in pinks and oranges and purples as the sun set specifically for them. He smiles, pressing a kiss to a sweaty temple.

“Sounds like a dream, kid.”


End file.
